October 17, 2014 AT 1:24 pm

Unfortunately, no clever gadget can keep you entirely safe online

Since the revelations last year of widespread snooping into personal communications by US spying authorities, Silicon Valley has seen a wave of privacy-focused startups. Many of these companies have used Tor, the open-source network that allows users to browse the web anonymously by encrypting the data and then routing it scattershot through computers around the world.